Details of the scheduled line up for Doctor Who in its fiftieth anniversary year have been released at the 2013 London toy fair and is it ever causing a ripple among fandom.
The new series begins in the Spring with eight new episodes (reported here) where we finally discover the mystery behind the girl twice dead, Clara Oswin. We will meet the new designed Cybermen in Neil Gaiman’s story the Last Cyberman and Lady Vastra, Jenny and Strax will return in what is thought to be The Crimson Horror.
In the autumn ,we will get an anniversary 60-minute special which has been rumoured to involve ALL the Doctors, the older ones apparently being included with digital trickery. If it is the same technology used in Forrest Gump and the Deep Space 9 episode trials and Tribble-ations then bring it on. In DS9 Sisko and crew were able to travel back in time to meet James T Kirk and his crew by placing the actors into scenes from the old episode and it was seamless (here). If this is the way they are going, fantastic, bring it on!
There will also be a special story which revisits how the programme was created. Written by Mark Gattis, An adventure in Time and Space will show how Australian Sydney Newman wanted to bring an educational sci-fi show to life but without monsters or BEMs as he called them.
Now, call me old fashioned, but this will be a 90-minute story. Why does a drama get 90 minutes when the actual anniversary episode featuring Matt Smith gets only sixty? I would rather the money spent on that went to bringing us another story or a movie-length anniversary story.
What is causing ripples is that there is no mention of a Christmas special nor of series 8. Many are panicking that the show is going on a break similar to David Tennant’s last year or may be going on a hiatus. But then the possibility still exists that the anniversary will see Matt Smith regenerate into a new incarnation. We at the Nerd hope not because he is simply magic and the right man to take the series beyond the fiftieth. More when we get it.
Irwin Fletcher
I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.
Nerd Comments